


Nikumaki

by deepestbluest



Category: Naruto
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:00:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27284572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deepestbluest/pseuds/deepestbluest
Summary: Madara looks at the creature in Hashirama’s hand and fights the urge to ask if all their fighting actually did break something in Hashirama’s brain.“Is that a slug?”
Relationships: Senju Hashirama/Uchiha Madara
Comments: 14
Kudos: 148





	Nikumaki

**Author's Note:**

> Nikumaki (n): the state in which traces of chopped off branches and trunks have glued together and healed after the passage of time ([x](https://bonsai.shikoku-np.co.jp/en/word/2009/05/nikumaki.html))
> 
> Nothing but gratitude to jessicamiriamdrew, who read this over for me and fixed _so much_

Madara looks at the creature in Hashirama’s hand and fights the urge to ask if all their fighting actually did break something in Hashirama’s brain.

“Is that a slug?”

Sprawled on his side along the engawa, his white and blue accessory perched on one forearm, Hashirama says, “It is! Isn't it cute?”

He rubs the top of its head with the top of his finger, looking as delighted as he had when he was swinging his granddaughter around by the ankle earlier.

“Why are you holding it?” Madara asks, eyeing the blue and white creature suspiciously. It seems not to be distressed, but his knowledge of slugs is limited. “Isn't touching slimy animals bad for them?”

The color drains out of Hashirama’s face. “I don't know. Tsuna handed it to me, so I assumed it was safe…”

Madara stares at him. “Hashirama, your granddaughter-”

“Our granddaughter. Don't pretend you had no hand in this.”

“-our granddaughter is four. She probably tried to put that thing in her mouth before she gave it to you.”

Hashirama snorts. “You know she doesn't just put things in her mouth anymore. She has other ways of learning now.”

“I don't know that. All I know is that her grandfather tricked her into trying something sour and she decided it's still worth the risk."

“She had to learn about bad outcomes eventually.”

“How do people think I'm the reckless one? You're sitting here, doing whatever a child wants."

He doesn't mean to be petulant, but even after decades of living peacefully in Konoha, the villagers still regard him warily.

“Madara.”

“What?”

“Come here.”

“I'm not letting you put that thing on me.”

Hashirama pouts at him as if they don't both know that that's exactly what he was planning on doing, and after a moment, despite his misgivings, Madara sits down beside him.

“I didn't mean by my feet.”

“You didn't say that, though, did you?” Madara points out. “You're lucky I'm sitting at all.”

Hashirama is lucky for a lot of reasons, but Madara is lucky for just as many.

A foot nudges pointedly at Madara’s thigh, and Madara resigns himself to being a footrest until Hashirama gets bored.

Swinging Hashirama’s legs into his lap by the ankles, Madara shakes his head. “You really should put the slug down.”

“But Tsuna will get mad at me.”

“If you don't put it down, _I'm_ going to get mad at you.”

“You aren't as scary.” Hashirama twists and grins at him. “Tsuna will stay mad at me and call me names. You have to sleep next to me.”

“Oh? I _have_ to, do I?”

“If you want me to do more of what I was doing this morning, you'll have to be next to me.”

Annoyed- Madara does want more of what Hashirama was doing- Madara shoots him a look that should tell Hashirama that he made a good point but shouldn't push it.

Hashirama only grins harder. “Tobirama volunteered to look after Tsuna for the day after she and Mito get back from looking at horses with the raikage’s wife.”

“You indulge her too much.”

“Who, Tsuna? That's what a grandfather does. You do the same thing- your pockets are empty lately while hers have been getting heavy.” He pushes at Madara's thigh with his heel. “You must mean her since Mito doesn't ask for anything from me.”

Madara nods. “I still don't understand you two or your marriage.”

“Because I could never tell her what to do?” Hashirama asks. He sounds amused.

Madara lays his hand on Hashirama's ankle. The temperature is beginning to drop during the day, but Hashirama’s skin is still warm, even where he's more bone than flesh.

“Because your clan is more like samurais than mine,” Madara says slowly. “You could make demands of your wives. Uchihas were farmers for generations; love matches were important. If a couple couldn't work together, everyone would suffer.”

Humming softly, Hashirama rubs the top of the slug’s head again.

“You're right. My family didn't marry for love, nor did Mito’s.”

The slug moves up Hashirama’s arm.

“I do love her, Madara, and she loves me as well. That won't go away just because our marriage ended.”

Just because Hashirama wanted to have Madara and Mito is interested in a "mystery woman" who regularly appears in the village, their bond with each other won't disappear, nor will the politics that made them marry in the first place.

Madara understands and doesn't.

The slug has almost reached Hashirama’s elbow.

It's a bad time for it- it's always a bad time for it- but Madara can't help wondering about Hashirama and Mito. They must have had sex; Mito couldn't have gotten pregnant on her own.

How did Hashirama treat Mito when they were in bed? Was he gentle with her like he is with Madara? Did she ask him to treat her roughly sometimes like he does when Madara gets that itch only Hashirama can scratch?

Does he miss having sex with her?

Was she better at it than Madara?

“Stop worrying,” Hashirama says. “I have everything I want and more. Besides, Tobirama can probably feel you across the village. He'll be cross about it later."

Madara rolls his eyes. “Speaking of your brother, I haven't seen him today. Usually he eats with us.”

Madara and Tobirama have come to an uneasy truce. It's built on mutual affection for Hashirama and investment in Konoha, and somehow, despite the tight fist of guilt in Madara’s gut, it's been holding.

Perhaps it's due to Tobirama’s involvement in the academy. There are several Uchihas enrolled, and despite Tobirama’s wariness, he's been fair to them.

Perhaps it's due to the knowledge that Izuna no longer hates Tobirama for maiming him.

Perhaps it's due to Madara having a place in Hashirama’s council. He can argue, and if he’s loud enough, Hashirama will shut up and listen. The others are wary of him the same way Tobirama still is, but they've learned not to dismiss Madara out of hand. They've even made a point of coming to him over the years- Madara isn't as recklessly idealistic as Hashirama, and unlike Tobirama, Madara can make their hokage listen sometimes.

The slug has made it halfway up Hashirama’s arm. There's no trail behind it, which Madara doesn't trust, but Hashirama doesn’t seem concerned.

Sometimes.

“He's with the raikage,” Hashirama tells him absently, his attention returned to the slug. “Somehow, he got the man to agree to spar with him.”

“Brave of him.”

Hashirama hides a laugh in a cough. “Who knows? Maybe Tobirama will get even faster.”

The slug has reached Hashirama’s shoulder. If he were dressed properly, it would have at least reached a sleeve, but Hashirama is being lazy and barely bothered to put his yukata on at all, much less wear it properly.

Madara frowns at the slug. “I don't like it.”

“I know you don't, but you're stronger than he is, Madara.”

“I meant the slug, Hashirama, not your brother. Although, I don't like him either.”

Hashirama sighs. “What did you two argue about this time?”

“Nothing. He's just annoying.”

“You're still mad that he managed to cut you the last time you two sparred, aren't you?”

Madara folds his arms across his chest. “He cheated.”

“Being faster isn't cheating.”

“That isn't what you say when Izuna places a winning bet faster than you do.”

“Izuna is faster than I am _because_ he's cheating,” Hashirama argues. He puts on a full pout, radiating misery.

He's right, but Madara doesn't have to tell him that. They've been married for too long for Madara to fall for the trap of trying to console him. Hashirama is fine; sympathy gives him the edge in finding an insult.

Or, Madara amends as Hashirama catches the hem of Madara's yukata and tugs on it, he just wants attention.

Madara shouldn't give into him, but it's too hot to glare at his husband while the sun beats down on him.

Chakra nature affinity doesn't protect Madara from the elements. His fingers burn when he cooks. His skin burns in the sun. He gets cold in the winter and overheats in the summer like everyone else.

“Don't get any ideas,” he warns.

“I would never,” Hashirama lies.

Madara ignores him and stretches out in the shade on the engawa. Even that little was enough to make sweat gather on his neck- it's getting cooler, but the days are still hot.

Hashirama wiggles over. He brings his slug friend with him.

Madara knows he does because, knowing that Madara will hate it but be too tired to retaliate, Hashirama puts the slug in Madara’s hand.

“I think she likes you,” Hashirama tells him.

Madara doesn't clench his fist or throw the slug back at Hashirama. One of them should be careful with the creature, and it isn't going to be Hashirama. “If you want to sleep in the same room as me ever again, you'll shut your mouth.”

“But-”

“Shut up and go to sleep or I’ll shove the slug down your throat.”

For once in his life, Hashirama shuts up.

  
  
  


⁂

  
  
  


Madara is woken up by the sound of a little girl’s excited gasp.

“Grandfather!” Tsunade lands next to him hard enough that Madara hears Hashirama mumble in confusion, his own nap dirturbed.

“What is it, Tsunade?” Madara asks, blinking twin blonde pigtails into focus.

Tsunade beams at him.

She looks so much like Hashirama when she's happy that Madara instinctively grows suspicious.

“Tsunade. What's going on?”

His granddaughter points at him.

Madara follows her finger to his shoulder and finds the slug there.

He only finds the slug. The cut that had been there before he fell asleep, left behind by Tobirama, is gone. There isn't so much as a scar, and when Madara rolls his shoulder, it feels fully healed.

“Tsunade,” he asks, looking back at his favorite grandchild, “where did you get this?”

Tsunade shrugs. “She found me.”

She lies like Hashirama does- poorly.

“You were playing in Grandpa’s things again, weren't you?”

She shakes her head. 

“Uncle Tobirama’s things, then.”

She bites her lip and looks away.

Madara sighs.

If it isn't Hashirama, it’s Tobirama. Both of them are wrapped around Tsunade’s finger. Tobirama puts up more protest, but even he caves eventually.

At least Izuna and Madara make her work to steal their things.

“Well?” Madara prompts. “What's her name?”

“Katsuyu,” a faint voice says. “I apologize for not introducing myself earlier!”

“You must be the one who healed me, unless Tsuna has some big news she's been hiding?”

Tsunade shakes her head, Hashirama’s pout on full display.

“Katsuyu said she could fix your shoulder since Uncle can't and Grandpa is so busy he just sleeps all the time.”

 _Exactly_ Hashirama’s pout.

Tsunade doesn't know that Madara had to fend off Hashirama and his glowing hands. Dealing with pain is good practice for an invasion. He and Hashirama are stronger than anyone else, but that doesn't mean they can't get hurt.

Case in point: Madara’s shoulder.

“Why did you leave Katsuyu with Hashirama?”

“Because you would've said no to me. Grandpa would make you let Katsuyu help, though.”

It's sound logic.

Their children and grandchildren all have some mixture of Mito’s strategic mind and Hashirama’s underhandedness. Tsunade is impulsive, but unlike Hashirama, who gets depressed and begs when he doesn't get his way, she simply finds a new route and pushes forward on her own.

It's an endearing habit that Madara is hoping baby Nawaki will also pick up.

Mito is less enthusiastic, but she has her own volatile Senju. Tōka is just as stubborn as her cousins and Madara; Tsunade easily could have gotten the habit from her.

That isn't the case, but it could be.

“Oh? You managed to summon something already?” Hashirama peers at Madara’s shoulder. “Katsuyu, is it?”

“Yes!”

“Did you and Tsuna make a pact?”

“We did, though I think she’ll want to reconsider it when she's older.”

Tsunade shakes her head. “I won't!”

She's their granddaughter. She's probably right.

Hashirama, unconcerned with the possibility that a four year old’s promises might come back to bite her when she's older, sits up and opens his arms. He doesn't feign the grunt as Tsunade lands on him; she didn't walk over to him so much as throw herself.

He recovers quickly, and he and Tsunade launch into an excited discussion of how she got into Tobirama’s office and how she chose which scroll to try.

Madara lets them talk. It's still too hot, and he's half asleep again already.

“Excuse me, Madara-sama?” Katsuyu asks.

“You want me to return you to Tsunade?”

“No, I’ll disappear soon; she isn't strong enough to summon much of me. I’ll be out of chakra soon.”

“Then what is it?”

“I don't mean to overstep, but you were heavily wounded once, is that correct? I can feel the damage to your chest.”

Madara doesn't answer, and Katsuyu makes a quiet sound of understanding.

“Then I’ll be certain not to heal it.”

Hashirama and Tsunade have moved onto discussing whether Hashirama could grow a tree so big he couldn't knock it down, and Madara doesn't mind the way his chest aches.

It took him a long time to explain to Hashirama that healing the damage wouldn't make Madara happy. Hashirama still doesn't understand it, but he finally stopped asking to fix it.

He’ll kiss the scar on Madara’s chest, just below Madara’s heart, when they undress at night and run his pruney fingers over it when they dress after visiting an onsen, and Madara doesn't mind it. He doesn't understand it, but if Hashirama wants to touch an old scar, that's fine.

“I appreciate that,” Madara tells Katsuyu.

She lets him hear her understanding in her silence, and Madara lets himself recline beside Hashirama once more.

It's a nice day for a nap.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for checking this out! If you want to say hi, you can find me on [tumblr](https://asotin.tumblr.com/) :D


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